BALLET
JANINE OIARRAT has always something to say and a worthwhile way of saying it, so it is no surprise that the programmes she is presenting at the Stoll Theatre contain more of interest than many of those staged by larger and better-known companies. Les Algues is the most ambitious work of this season; an enormously difficult theme—a young man who feigns madness in order to follow his beloved into an asylum, she having lost her reason through the force of her passion for him. In conjunction with the writer of the 'book', Louis Bertrand Castelli, Charrat has produced a fine and sensitive piece of work, beautifully staged and lit. But despite its undeniable qualities, it seems to me to fail as a ballet, and to resolve itself into a most touching pas de deux (Charrat and Peter van Dijk), with the rest of the cast as a somewhat ineffectual background. My impression is that, apart from the lovers' roles, the ballet springs from the mind rather than from the heart.
The two pas de deux, following each other in the programme, as if to invite comparison, are indeed a most interesting contrast. The first, Pas Classique d'Auber (choreography by Gsovcky), in the established manner of the beginning of the century, is—like Don Quixote—full of the technical tours de force which always seem to need the accompani- ment of a drum-roll. Its execution demands strength, brilliance and brittleness of style, and certainly Helene Trailine and Jean Lemoine possess the first two qualities and do their best to assume the last. Concerto de Grieg (choreography by Charrat) is one of the most beautiful examples I have ever seen of the purely contemporary classical pas de deux. Here technique is used, not as an end in itself, but as a means to create a work or art. It goes without saying that Janine Charrat dances her own composition as only its creator could; but the dancing of Peter van Dijk, even though heralded by seemingly extravagant claims, lives up to its reputation. This young man has all the softness of movement allied with masculine strength that goes to the making of a great male dancer.
LILLIAN BROWS8
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